In recent years surface-mounted (particularly wall-mounted) hair dryers have become a popular feature in hotels. Many of the better hotels in the United States, Europe and elsewhere have installed the wall-mounted hair dryers in their guest bathrooms for the convenience of the hotel guests. These hotels have found that guests appreciate the convenience of having hair dryers available, so that the guests do not need to carry portable hair dryers in their luggage. The wall-mounted hair dryers have thus become a significant element in travelers' decisions regarding choice of hotel accommodations.
The use and presence of a permanent hair dryer in a hotel bathroom have not been without problems, however. Since a great deal of moisture and humidity is generated when a guest showers, bathes or shaves in a hotel bathroom, the hair dryer is subjected to operation under extremely humid conditions. In particular, it has been common for excessive moisture to be drawn into the air intake of the hair dryer and its operation thereby adversely affected.
Movement of air through these types of units and force of the air exhaust for hair drying has often been inadequate. The prior hair dryer units have used simple fan blades or "squirrel cage" rotors to draw in air and exhaust the air for drying. These devices, however, are frequently incapable of moving adequate quantities of air unless the devices are expanded to an unwieldy or uneconomical size.
Yet another problem has arisen with the method of turning the units on and off. Conventionally this has been accomplished by incorporating a recess into the hair dryer housing and placing a normally closed off/on switch in the top of the recess. The hand-held nozzle of the hair dryer, which is connected to the air outlet of the dryer by a flexible conduit, is seated in the recess when the unit is not in use. When the nozzle is properly seated in the recess it will contact the normally closed switch and depress the switch to an open position, thus cutting power to the hair dryer motor and turning the unit off. When the nozzle is removed from the recess by the user, the switch returns to its normally closed position and the motor and heating element are started. It has frequently been found, however, that users replace the nozzle in the recess in a misaligned position, such that the nozzle does not fully open the switch and the hair dryer fails to shut off after use. Either or both the heating element and motor may then be burnt out.
Finally, it is not uncommon for the flexible conduit connecting the hair dryer outlet and the nozzle to become detached from the outlet, so that the air blows along the wall surface and cannot be used by the hotel guest for hair drying.
It would therefore be advantageous to have a surface-mounted (particularly wall-mounted) hair dryer which would provide significant quantities of air at a high flow rate and which could be easily and positively turned on and off by use of the hair dryer nozzle. Such a unit would also incorporate means for minimizing the effects of the ambient moisture and also minimizing or eliminating the tendency for the flexible conduit to separate from the main hair dryer unit.